Stephen Davis - A Long and Bloody Task: The Atlanta Campaign from Dalton through Kennesaw to the Chattahoochee, May 5–July 18, 1864

Also part of the Emerging Civil War Series:

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Bloody Autumn: The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864

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Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale: The Battle of Chickamauga, Sept. 18-20, 1863

by William Lee White

Calamity in Carolina: The Battles of Averasboro and Bentonville, March 1865

by Daniel T. Davis and Phillip S. Greenwalt

Dawn of Victory: Breakthrough at Petersburg, March 25-April 2, 1865

by Edward S. Alexander

Fight Like the Devil: The First Day at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863

by Chris Mackowski, Kristopher D. White, and Daniel T. Davis

Grants Last Battle: The Story Behind the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

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Hell Itself: The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-7, 1864

by Chris Mackowski

Hurricane from the Heavens: The Battle of Cold Harbor, May 26-June 5, 1864

by Daniel T. Davis and Phillip S. Greenwalt

The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson: The Mortal Wounding of the Confederacys Greatest Icon

by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White

No Turning Back: A Guide to the 1864 Overland Campaign

by Robert M. Dunkerly, Donald C. Pfanz, and David R. Ruth

Out Flew the Sabres: The Battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863

by Eric J. Wittenberg and Daniel T. Davis

A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May 8-21, 1864

by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White

Simply Murder: The Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862

by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White

Strike Them a Blow: Battle Along the North Anna River, May 21-25, 1863

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That Furious Struggle: Chancellorsville and the High Tide of the Confederacy, May 1-5, 1863

by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White

To the Bitter End: Appomattox, Bennett Place, and the Surrenders of the Confederacy

by Robert M. Dunkerly

A Want of Vigilance: The Bristoe Station Campaign, October 9-19, 1863

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2016 by Stephen Davis

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.

First edition, first printing

ISBN-13 (paperback): 978-1-61121-317-1

ISBN-13 (ebook): 978-1-61121-318-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Davis, Stephen, 1948- author.

Title: A long and bloody task : the Atlanta Campaign from Dalton through

Kennesaw to the Chattahoochee, May 5-July 18, 1864 / by Stephen Davis.

Description: First edition. | El Dorado Hills, California : Savas Beatie LLC,

2016. | Series: Emerging Civil War series

Identifiers: LCCN 2016010815| ISBN 9781611213171 (pbk : alk. paper) | ISBN

9781611213188 (ebk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Atlanta Campaign, 1864.

Classification: LCC E476.7 .D39 2016 | DDC 973.7/36--dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016010815

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Pro mea dulce sed septentrionale uxore

Table of Contents

by Stephen Briggs

by Robert W. Novak

by Michael K. Shaffer

by Britt McCarley

by Stephen Davis

by Stephen Davis

List of Maps

Maps by Hal Jespersen

Acknowledgments

When writing a book, an author leans on a lot of his friends and colleagues in the Civil War community. We may be a beleaguered lot in the national conversation about race and politics, so when we stick together to advance our causethat of learning about the nations most momentous event, our civil warits not just reassuring, but rejuvenating.

For this title of the Emerging Civil War Series, I wish to thank Chris Mackowski and Daniel Davis for their invitation to write about the Atlanta campaign. We signed the deal during the 2015 U.S. Memorial Day weekend activities at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, among Yankee and Rebel reenactors (talk about rejuvenation!), which made the event that much more memorable.

I thank my friends who have written Appendices for this title: Britt McCarley, Steven Briggs, and Mike Shaffer. Their knowledge of, respectively, Shermans logistics, Picketts Mill battlefield, and Johnstons Chattahoochee River line is, in my view, unmatched among todays Civil War scholars. Having them share this with readers of our book is a special honor. Thanks, too, to Robert Bobby Novak for sharing his personal reminiscences about Kennesaw Mountain. The future of Civil War scholarship is in very good hands.

As in all my Civil War endeavors, my thanks go to Dr. Gordon Jones, senior military historian of the Atlanta History Center. In our regular barbecue luncheons, Gordon and I share military lore, tackle factual questions in the literature, and generally slay the enemycommonly defined by us as what we still dont know about the war. Its great to have such friends.

Most of all, I express my sincerest gratitude to Theodore P. Savas, esq. Ted, founder of Savas Woodbury several decades ago, who gave me one of my first big chances to write about the Atlanta campaign. Now, I might say that writing this volume for Savas Beatie brings my scholarship on the subject to full circle

except for the fact that this wouldnt be true. Ted understands as well as any Civil War publisher in the business that we are still, and always, finding new stuff about our common passion. Its this gaudium eruditionisjoy of knowledgewhich keeps all of us Civil Warriors (to quote Bob Dylan) forever young.

Thanks to you all. Now, lets get back to the Yanks and the Rebs.

Stephen Davis

Atlanta

March 2016

Photo Credits: Dan Davis (dd); Steve Davis (sd); Library of Congress (loc); Chris Mackowski (cm); Britt McCarley (bm); Robert Novak (rn); Dave Powell (dp); Savas Beatie (sb); Michael Shaffer (ms); Wikipedia (w)

For the Emerging Civil War Series

The approach of warm weather told us that our work for the summer would soon commence, but I do not think anyone had a thought that the task would prove so long and bloody.

diary of Sgt. James Litton Cooper, 20th Tennessee, spring 1864